A Teacher’s Thoughts

This morning thirteen staff members here at KMS sat down to begin their journey into the world of blogging. As we went along and I listened to the discussion and heard the questions I couldn’t help but think of David Warlick’s K12 Online Pre Conference Keynote.

Walls are coming down…

David Warlick, K12 Online Pre Conference Keynote

We are renovating in our middle school. Literally, walls have come down. Our building is more open this year and will be even more open next year.

As we journey into the blogosphere, we begin to tear down our own personal walls. For students this doesn’t mean much, they have been raised on an open internet. For teachers (and most other adults) this is a big step in a new direction.

boundaries are changing…

David Warlick, K12 Online Conference

With the exodus of the High School our boundaries have really opened up. We have our own facility. As these bloggers venture into the world of professional transparency the openness is new. As we engage in our professional development we are searching out those new boundaries that will give us traction so we can move strongly forward.

Here are some thoughts expressed by these new bloggers. If any of you reading this get a chance to stop by their sites, please drop in some words of encouragement. Remember when you first started?

Kevin at The Round Table sums up much of the excitement and trepidation in his first blog post:

Excited about the professional opportunities that will abound through technology, but anxious about the time commitment, opening up my thoughts and ideas to the world, the opportunity for destructive criticism by the cynical minority, or the reality that elementary school students are further ahead then the Principal of the Middle School.

Marcia chimes in with courage:

I am at once excited and feeling waaaaay out of my league. But if not now, when……..?

In “Beginning Gitters” our intrepid librarian echoes a sentiment many beginning bloggers have felt:

I am a beginning blogger. The whole world can read what I write. Will I have anything worthy of being read by others?

And finally, Bob Hawkins brings everything back around, as have so many others, to the students and the relationships we build with them each day.

human connections seem to matter most, especially as we flow deeper into the digital world

I am energized by the great posts these educators have written and look forward to a great developing community.